The saloon car practice times told of the close racing that was to follow in the Peter England Trophy. Sir Gawaine Baillie had been fastest on the first day in his supercharged Falcon but Roy Pierpoint had really got his foot down in the second session and the Weberized Falcon had pipped pole position with a lap in 1.51,2. Sir John Whitmore and Jackie Ickx in works Lotus Cortinas fitted with fuel injection, and Jack Oliver in the Mustang (with discs on all four wheels) all got down to 1.52,2, to provide the opposition. All these times were comfortably better than the outright saloon car record which stood to Jimmy Clark, but of course his times were with the Group 2 Lotus Cortina.
At the start everybody got a little sideways and it was John Whitmore who made the best getaway, leading them all into Paddock. At the end of the first lap Whitmore still led but was hard pressed by the Falcons of Roy Pierpoint and Gawaine Baillie, both of which passed him on the way up to Hawthorne’s. Behind, all sideways, came Oliver in the DR Racing Mustang and Jackie Ickx who had passed Brian Muir in the 7-litre Galaxie on the inside of South Bank, to take fifth place. The 7-litre monster was being its usual handful, Muir being hampered as he had no brakes. Also in trouble was Mike Salmon in the Mustang. He should have started on the third row of the grid, but arrived late and started at the rear of the grid. He came up to 7th place by the fourth lap only to have a plug lead come loose.
Roy Pierpoint had now established a comfortable lead but second man Baillie had to battle with Whitmore initially, and later Oliver, when the Mustang succeeded in getting past the Lotus Cortina. The sight of Oliver and Whitmore pressing on had the crowd on their feet all round the circuit.
In the 1300 cc class John Young in the Superspeed Anglia (in eight place overall) was holding off John Rhodes fairly easily in the works Mini-Cooper S. Young's team mate, Chris Craft, was eliminated early on by a locked limited slip which caused him to spin on the bottom straight. In the midget class the Fraser Imp of Bernard Unett was having a devil of a dice with John Fitzpatrick in the Broadspeed Anglia (now fitted with a five speed gearbox). Anita Taylor in the other Broadspeed Anglia retired with handling troubles after completing lap 6. On lap 10, exactly half distance, Unett Slipped by Fitz and Handley to take the class lead. This was the first time the Imps have ever headed the Anglias.
Still at the head of the field Roy Pierpoint continued to lead, with Oliver now in second place after passing Baillie on lap 8. In the closing stages Gawaine Baillie had a real go to retake second place and very nearly did it, but Oliver got all sideways on the last lap and the Falcon had to back off to avoid contact. Pierpoint took the flag for his fourth successive win over the last few weekends. He was a full 6 seconds ahead of Oliver, Baillie and the 2-litre class winner, Whitmore, all three of which were separated by less than a second. John Young's Anglia easily won the 1300 cc class from the Mini-Cooper Ss of Rhodes and Gordon Spice. The real drama was in the 1000 cc class where Unett had led right up to the 18th lap when fuel surge caused by an almost empty tank had forced him to drop right back, letting Fitzpatrick go on to win yet again for Broadspeed.
Source: Autosport and Autocar